Oldal 16 [16]
WOLFGANG BRAUNGART
THE RITUAL?
The ritual is a regulated, sequence-based (that is, inherently structured) act
performed by a community or for a community. The following elements can
be seen to represent the constituent parts of both sacred and secular rituals:
(1) the ritual repeats a set act; (2) it is unequivocal and visible, staged and
theatrical, possibly verging on having a certain celebratory, festive nature;
(3) it is aesthetically elaborated and self-referential; (4) it can be understood
symbolically; (5) it requires participants who must be specifically legitimised
for it, and additional participants who acclaim the ritual or are included within
it. These five aspects constitute the ritual as a whole and determine the overall
form of the ritual. Within this whole, the ritual takes on specific social and
cultural functions, and plays a communicative role.
The ritual is one of the fundamental types of social action. As a generic con¬
cept, it covers sacred rites (religious cults, liturgies), secular rituals (celebra¬
tions that take place at various points during an individual’s life and emphasise
its particular stages or give structure to the life of the collective), traditional
customs (rites of chastisement and reprehension, clubs’ and societies’ rituals),
and highly regulated, institutionalised, often public/state-centred ceremonies
(the opening of parliament, the assumption of office, coronations, state visits).
However, a ritual does not need to solely be a formal, strict, serious activity.
Any wedding or children’s birthday party shows this. Indeed, laughter can
have a place in a ritual (as in Mardi Gras carnivals) even within a sacred set¬
ting (risus paschalis).
TYPES OF RITUAL
Rituals are (or can be) based on biological and anthropological drives — as
shown by human courtship rituals. However, within the framework of cultural
anthropology, the term “ritual” refers to a symbolic, repeated, sense-giving
action, and must therefore be separated from the biological term “ritual,” or
“ritualisation.” This biological term refers to a pattern of behavior occurring
on the basis of necessity and as a result of consequential outcomes; a pattern
of behavior that is the remnant of a different interaction between biological
functions.
? Wolfgang Braungart: Ritual, in D. Weidner (ed.): Handbuch Literatur und Religion, Stuttgart,
Metzler, 2016, 427-434. I am grateful to Jennifer Caisley for the translation from German
into English of this chapter.
Further elaborated in Wolfgang Braungart: Form und Subjektivitat. Ritual und Liturgie als
Praktiken literarischer Kommunikation, in R. M. Erdbeer — F. Klaeger — K. Stierstorfer (eds.):
Grundthemen der Literaturwissenschaft: Form, Berlin/Boston, De Gruyter, 2020.
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